Rogan the Catfish

Random trivia: I’m blind in headspace.  I can see some, but I’m severely near-sighted, and can’t make out any visual detail unless something is RIGHT in front of me.

For the longest time, nobody in the system realized this, and I presumed everyone else in the system was just like me.  It only came out around 2010 or so, when someone mentioned the design of the metal in stained glass we had in the House at the time, and I was like, “wait, THERE’S METAL IN THE STAINED GLASS?”

In headspace, the impairment is pretty minimal, but it’s also non-negotiable.  As far as I can tell, vision just takes too much of my mental bandwidth; if I wear my glasses and concentrate REAL hard, I can make out a bit more, but it’s pretty much never worth it.  Since there’s a weird... I dunno, headspace sense that allows me to get a sense of mass around me, I navigate fine.  I may not be able to SEE it, but I can still tell it’s there, and that’s all that matters, really.

But it means me and Rhymers have hilarious conversations because they have a bunch of system members who’re the reverse of me.  I’m blind in a sighted vessel; they’re sighted in a blind vessel.

It also means that it kinda bugs me, reading stories about blind characters who’re always like, “I can never see the details of my love’s face in crystal clear Kodak picture!  Woe is me!” I can safely say that that has never once bothered me.  I can see them well enough with my hands.  I know their scents, and the sounds of their voices, and thanks to whatever you’d call that headspace sense, I can feel the joy in their smiles and the grief in their tears.  I feel that more than makes up for my abominable headspace vision.

So you know, in case you ever wondered how I can tell what Mac’s face looks like, it’s because I rub my face all over him and use my beard as antennae.  I’m like a large hairy catfish.

--Rogan